XIV. D " niards, and Italians, (a) the immediate com- CHAP. mand of which, under the direction of Lorenzo, was intrusted to Renzo da Ceri. Of this force a considerable part was concentrated at Pesaro; but at the time when hostilities were expected to commence, a herald arrived at Pesaro, to demand a safe conduct for two persons who were authorized by the duke of Urbino to impart a message to Lorenzo de' Medici. The necessary credentials were accordingly given, when Suares di Lione a Spanish officer, and Oratio Florida secretary to the duke, were introduced in a public audience; but instead of announcing any proposition of submission or accommodation, as was probably expected from them, the secretary read aloud a challenge from the duke, addressed to Lorenzo; by which he proposed, that in order to prevent the effusion of blood and the calamities of a protracted warfare, the contending parties should terminate the contest by an equal number of soldiers on each side, such number to be at the choice of Lorenzo ; from VOL. III. L (a) Leoni, vita di Fr. Maria duca d'Urbino, lib. ii. Guicciardini states the amount at one thousand men at arms, one thousand light horse, and fifteen thousand infantry. Storia d' Ital. lib. xiii. ii. 133. A. D. 1517. A. Et. 4%. A. Pont. V. XIV. CHAP. from four, to four thousand; concluding with an offer to Lorenzo, in case he preferred it, to meet him at a time and place to be appointed for that purpose and to decide their differences by single combat.(a) A. D. 1517. A. Et. 4. A. Pont. V. The only reply which Lorenzo made to this message, which he affected to consider as a personal affront, was to commit the bearers of it to prison.(b) In a few days, however, he liberated the Spaniard; but he sent the secretary of the duke to Rome, for the purpose of being examined respecting the measures and intentions of his master, and particularly as (a) This singular document is preserved by Leoni, in his life of Fr. Maria duke of Urbino, and may be found in the Appendix, No. CXL. (b) Ammirato informs us, that Lorenzo offered to accept the challenge and meet the duke in single combat, provided he would first restore matters to their former footing. "-egli non ricusò l'offerta fattagli da Francesco Maria, di "combatter seco à corpo à corpo per terminar la differenza "dello stato, quando però Francesco Maria si fosse conten"tato di lasciar star le cose nel modo in che prima erano." Ammir. Ritratti d' Uomini illustri di Casa Medici, in Opusc. iii. 105. If by this proposal it was meant that the duke should relinquish to Lorenzo the sovereignty of Urbino before XIV. 1 as to the persons who had stimulated and abet- CHAP. ted him in the prosecution of the war. To the indelible reproach of the pope and his advisers, the use of torture was resorted to, for the purpose of obtaining information from a person who had relied on the express sanction of a safe conduct; but the result of this atrocious act is said to have served only to confirm the pope in the suspicions which he already entertained of the hostile disposition of the French monarch.(a) " The opposing armies now took the field, that of the duke being inferior in number to that L 2 fore the combat took place, it was not likely that the duke would accede to it, and the evasion will not save the credit of the papal commander, which, however, might perhaps be defended on better grounds. (a) It appears from Guicciardini, that the Roman casuists pretended that the passport was void, because Florida was not expressly named as a subject of the church and secretary of the duke; but the historian justly treats this as a miserable cavil. Storia d'Ital. lib. xiii. i. 133. The secretary did not, however, lose his life on this occasion, but was liberated in consequence of a stipulation for that purpose, in the treaty afterwards concluded between the contending parties. Leoni, vita di Fr. Maria duca d' Urbino, lib. ii. p. 261. A. D. 1517. A. Et. 42. A. Pont. V. CHAP. that of his adversaries. XIV. A. D. 1517. A. t. 42. War of Urbino. After several move ments and partial contests on the banks of the river Metro, in the vicinity of Fossombrone, in which the celebrated commander Giovanni de' Medici, then very young, gave an earnest of those military talents which he afterwards more fully displayed,(a) the armies arrived within a mile of each other near Monte Baroccio. (a) He was the son of Giovanni di Pier-Francesco de' Medici, by Caterina Sforza, the heroine of her age, and was born at Forli, in 1498. If we may credit Ammirato, he manifested, in his infancy, a most savage ferocity of disposition, which could only be gratified by slaughtering brute animals, and insulting and abusing his companions. In the paroxisms of his fury, he had even assassinated several persons, and had been banished from Florence before he arrived at manhood. His early crimes were, however, too soon forgotten in the splendor of his military exploits; and his incredible courage, and unbounded generosity, gained him numerous friends and adherents, and are said to have occasioned great apprehensions to Leo X. who sent for him to Rome at an early age, and endeavoured to secure his attachment by continual favours. The descendants of Giovanni, who was the father of the grand duke Cosmo I. swayed the sceptre of Tuscany for two centuries. v. Ammirato, Ritratti di Uomini illustri di Casa Medici. Opusc. iii. 176. Life of Lorenzo de' Medici, vol. ii. p. 297. A letter from this young man to the cardinal Giulio de' Medici, written at this juncture, when he was leaving Florence to join the army under his kinsman Lorenzo, is yet preserved, and is now first published in the Appendix, No. CXLI. Baroccio. XIV. A decisive conflict now seemed in- CHAP. evitable, but Lorenzo lost a favourable opportunity of bringing his adversaries to an engagement, and suffered them to withdraw from à situation of acknowledged danger into a place where they might either accept or decline the combat. Instead of appealing to arms, the duke of Urbino had recourse to a stratagem for creating dissensions among hist adversaries, and particularly for detaching the Gascons from the service of Lorenzo. To this end he transmitted to their commanders certain letters, said to have been found in the apartments of the secretary of Lorenzo at Saltara, which place had been occupied by the duke immediately after the departure of the papal troops. By these letters it appeared that the pope had complained of the extravagant expense of supporting his auxiliaries, and had expressed his wishes that they would return to France. Hence a considerable ferment arose in the army, which combining with the disadvantages of their situation, the difficulty of obtaining provisions, and perhaps the reluctance of the commanders to hazard an engagement, induced them to change their position, and to retire in the presence of an inferior force into the Vicariato. After attacking the castle of S. Costanza, which was carried A. D. 1517. A. Et. 48. A. Pont. V. |
